Have you ever thought about how few shrubs there are that carry within their structure any strength of form? A number have a predictable shape, but form – which says more about the visible ‘forc ...
It’s thirty years today since I was first published, in The Age, Melbourne. It felt totally tectonic. I was convinced that my life would never be the same from that moment on. And it turns out ...
I stood there gazing at the Purple-leafed birch grove freshly planted not 12 months after Black Saturday had levelled my garden. Planted in burnt, organic poor, compacted soils in a gravel garden, the ...
Maybe it’s time for a truly low-glam plant. Every garden needs modest, background plants to create the stage on which the ‘A-listers’ can really shine. They’re as important as the ‘extr ...
While the sun has just broken through the cloud this afternoon, most of today has been cold, wet and gloomy. The garden is looking sparse, partly because it’s winter and partly because I’ve just ...
For years I’ve complained that June is by far the most boring month in my garden, and that nothing – absolutely nothing – actually looks like it’s enjoying June by starting to flower in this b ...
I’m guilty. I had my head turned and couldn’t resist. I spurned my first love and chose another. Now I realise my mistake and am desperate to make up for it. Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, I want you bac ...
At this florally quiet time of year (in the far southern states, at least), there’s an extraordinary opportunity for a plant to really shine, with little or no competition – to be a big fish in a ...
Having laden this Plant of the Week feature of The Gardenist with plants about which the authors could all enthuse unequivocally, I thought it was time to include a plant about which I’m in two (or ...
I’m wracking my brains, trying to remember my first encounter with Hydrangea quercifolia. Most of us grew up with hydrangeas – the ‘mop-top’ sort – in our Mum’s gardens, or our Nana’ ...
Yep, it’s a bit of a mouthful of a name, but it’s very satisfying (and invariably impressive) to say once you’ve nailed it. In singing the praises of Miscanthus transmorrisonensis, it’s necess ...
In my previous contribution to Plant of the Week, I wrote about Pachystegia insignis, the Marlborough rock daisy. I opined the fact that, although it is a first class garden plant, it is a rather unat ...
At least part of the appeal, for me, of Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’ is its name. I don’t understand why some words resonate more than others – who does? – but there’s something about that ...
I really love this plant. It is at the top of The List (with half a dozen others – not that they know, of course). I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember. It grew in Mum and Dad’s private ...
One of my favourite games to play in surveying a sumptuously planted border or naturalistic-style garden is ‘spot the annual’. Long ago in gardening lore, annual and perennial borders were very ...
Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ may not win the prize as my favourite grass, but it certainly wins the prize for being the grass with the most distinct form, and, therefore, possibly the most useful ...
The context for this choice is that I’ve become a bit obsessed about gardens that don’t need irrigation – ‘Rainfed’ gardens, if I can borrow a term from broad-acre cropping. Up here in Kyn ...
It takes a lot to make me love a shrub. I fully acknowledge and am grateful for the critical role shrubs play in the anatomy of a good garden, but I rarely really love them. Cotinus ‘Grace’, howev ...